The weapon of choice when you have no firearms

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War is always ugly and brutal. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is no different, with Ukrainians feelings of powerless and vulnerable.

Many desperate families are fleeing the country but the majority are staying and all will be wondering if they and their loved ones will survive to the next day.

Ukrainians are hopelessly under-armed compared to Russia. They are in a David Vs Goliath battle and there has been widespread media reporting of people making Molotov cocktails in an attempt to rebalance power and give the civilian population, untrained but enthusiastic, the chance to fight back.

The Molotov cocktail is the weapon of choice when you have no firearms.

Western mainstream media has been so enthusiastic and supportive of the Ukrainian fightback they have reported a brewery in Ukraine being turned into a temporary factory to make the explosive petrol bombs. Also, when newspaper outlets such as the Washington Post eagerly report “grated styrofoam is sometimes added, reportedly to make the flaming liquid sticky”, you know which side they are on.

As Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine, not so far away in Palestine a group of boys were making Molotov cocktails to hurl at the foreign occupying army in their country. All historic Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, has been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967 – one of the longest military occupations in modern history. The boys were in the occupied West Bank where Palestinians live under a cruel military regime through which they face daily harassment, ritual humiliation, arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without trial (children included) and well-documented brutality when they resist their occupiers.

When the Israeli military turned up, 14-year-old Mohammed Shehadeh was shot and killed, allegedly while throwing a Molotov cocktail. His family say he was 300 metres away from the incident but either way this is irrelevant to the occupying power whose main purpose is to “teach a lesson”.

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A United Nations official, Tor Wennesland, expressed “grave concern” at the killing and called for “Israeli restraint”. He said children must not be the target of violence and lethal force may only be used when strictly unavoidable to protect life. This means little to Israel where the killing of Palestinians, and Palestinian children, has been casualised because there is no effective accountability.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupying force in the West Bank. According to the UN, there were 24 such deaths in 2020 and 78 in 2021.

Meanwhile the Human Rights Group Defence for Children International says 2021 was the deadliest year for Palestinian children since 2014, as Israeli forces killed 76 Palestinians under 18, 15 of them in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and 61 in the besieged Gaza Strip. They also reported last week that Israel was continuing to withhold the bodies of nine Palestinian children its forces have killed. All nine were under 18 at the time of their deaths, which occurred between 2016 and December 2021, with the youngest being two 15-year-olds: Yousef Mohammad Odeh from Jenin, and Mohammad Nidal Musa from Nablus.

So how is Aotearoa New Zealand to respond to foreign invasions and occupations where largely defenceless people face overwhelming military might?

In the case of Russia invading Ukraine the government has been loud in its condemnation and has imposed various boycotts. It is also looking to pass special legislation in the next few days so it can impose further sanctions to cause direct harm to the Russian economy.

But in the case of Palestine the Labour government is doing the precise opposite. There have never been boycotts or bans imposed on Israel. Instead of holding the country to account for war crimes and flagrant breaches of international law the Labour government last month took part in an agricultural summit to “build strategic partnerships” with Israel and thereby assist in exploiting stolen Palestinian land for Israel’s benefit. Shameful behaviour. The government says everyone’s human rights are equal but as George Orwell might have said, some human rights are more equal than others.

We should salute the courage of the people of Ukraine as they manufacture Molotov cocktails to fight foreign occupation. We should also salute the courage of Palestinians, children especially, who also dare to fight for their freedom while the Labour government looks the other way.

 

16 COMMENTS

  1. Its about time NZ started supporting Palestinian independence, but it wont happen because the Israelis will scream anti semenism.

  2. Give it a break John. Your anti-Semitic opinions are well known. Admittedly you hold those views in good faith and one respects your defence (if not your promotion) of them.

    Respectfully

    Lovelocks Sid

    • John Minto is anti-racist, so of course he stands against genuine antisemitism ,,,, not the perversion of the word by zionists

      Meet The Wrong Type of Jew ,,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjhHhL_15Nw

      “In 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed legislation making two WWII paramilitaries—the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)—heroes of Ukraine, and made it a criminal offense to deny their heroism. The OUN had collaborated with the Nazis and participated in the Holocaust, while the UPA slaughtered thousands of Jews and 70,000-100,000 Poles on their own volition. “…..

      …. “The recuperation even extends to SS Galichina, a Ukrainian division of the Waffen-SS; the director of the Institute of National Memory proclaimed that the SS fighters were “war victims.” The government’s embrace of Bandera is not only deplorable, but also extremely divisive, considering the OUN/UPA are reviled in eastern Ukraine.

      Predictably, the celebration of Nazi collaborators has accompanied a rise in outright anti-Semitism. ” …..

      …. “Jews Out!” chanted thousands during a January 2017 march honoring OUN leader Bandera. (The next day the police denied hearing anything anti-Semitic.) That summer, a three-day festival celebrating the Nazi collaborator Shukhevych capped off with the firebombing of a synagogue. In November 2017, RFE reported Nazi salutes as 20,000 marched in honor of the UPA. And last April, hundreds marched in L’viv with coordinated Nazi salutes honoring SS Galichina; the march was promoted by the L’viv regional government.” ….

      … “Unsurprisingly, government-led glorification of Holocaust perpetrators was a green light for other forms of anti-Semitism. The past three years saw an explosion of swastikas and SS runes on city streets, death threats, and vandalism of Holocaust memorials, Jewish centers, cemeteries, tombs, and places of worship, all of which led Israel to take the unusual step of publicly urging Kiev to address the epidemic. ” ,,,, and much much much more here https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/

      Also when this war kicked off in 2014 — “There are over 30 pro-nationalist, volunteer battalions similar to Aidar, such as Ukraina, DND Metinvest and Kiev 1, all funded by private investors.
      The Aidar battalion is publicly backed by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who also allegedly funds the Azov, Donbas, Dnepr 1, Dnepr 2 volunteer battalions, operating under orders from Kiev. ” https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604

      Who gets NATO’s weapons in Ukraine? https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/05/xpbb-m05.html
      “On Twitter, Telegram, Facebook and elsewhere, the country’s military has been conducting a depraved social media campaign, posting photos and videos of dead Russian soldiers. The gruesome images—and the glee with which they are posted—testify to the reactionary and right-wing nature of the forces fighting on behalf of imperialism in Ukraine. ” ….

      .. “On Tuesday, the Facebook account of the Commander of Ukraine’s special forces announced it would no longer take Russian artillerymen prisoner, but kill them on the spot. The post also threatened that surrendering to Ukraine’s special forces would be worse than death and that captured Russian artillerymen would be “cut up like pigs.”” ….

      “These posts are the announcement of the intent to commit war crimes. Such policies are in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war (POW),” ,,,, “The social media accounts of Ukraine’s far-right forces, many of which are fully integrated into the army, are likewise rife with violent content and exhortations to commit atrocities against Russian soldiers.”

  3. calling criticism of Israel anti Semitism is the same as holocaust denial, it’s using the worst thing that happened in modern history in an attempt to justify current policy decisions.

    • It ia antisemitism. Hatred directed only against the world’s one Jewish state, the collective Jew. It’s the new version of the centuries’ old virus.

        • Bad spelling is one thing, aom. Bad karma is another. “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. ” Watch your back, boyo.

      • so all jews are isreali no matter where they live, with loyalty only to isreal?? is that what you’re saying?
        cos it sounds suspiciously like an old nazi trope about the international/cosmopolitan jew to me….

        now address the point I was making gaby if you can.

      • It’s a Zionist State, settler colonialist state..NOT a Jewish State.
        for more, see Jewish Voice for Peace

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